Small pot, big laydown?

MRBAA · #1 06-06-2007, 10:54 AM

Playing 1-5 stud (1-10 on river) on the commuter train -- all the players have played together many times, 8 handed. $1 bring in, one call, one fold, I make it $3 to go with (A4)A, (one other ace is out) all fold to a fairly loose, fairly erratic player who doesn't notice that I raised and tries to raise to $2 with a king in the door. It's pointed out that I raised and he just calls. All others fold and we are head up, with $9 in the pot. On fourth he pairs his door and I pair my side card, so the hands are as follows:

(xx)KK
(A4)A4

He says "let's get this hand over right here" and leads out $5 and I...

Brad1970 · #2 06-06-2007, 01:14 PM

If you know he started with split K's & one of your Aces is dead, it's a no brainer. If you think he is making a play, call him down or possibly raisey daisy. Since you play with him alot, only you can make that call.

Against an unknown, it would be tough but I'd muck it. That little pot isn't worth fighting over.

lambchop · #3 06-06-2007, 04:08 PM

"fairly loose, fairly erratic"

So, in erratic do you mean aggressive or just all over the place? If he's loose and aggressive make it $5 more, if he's loose and passive then it's an easy muck. My vote is raise (against loose, erratic) even though the pot is dinky, let's make some money.

Andy B · #4 06-06-2007, 08:01 PM

Speech got me. I let him bluff off his money.

MRBAA · #5 06-07-2007, 10:06 AM

To me this hand was all about the combination of strategic knowledge, human factors and alertness that go into playing winning poker. I think one of the reasons I like Roy Cooke's work so much is that he really factors all of them into his best pieces. Jeff has also done that well in a couple of his articles. As some of you may know, I've co-written a book on tells. The speech here kind of threw me -- this player is truly erratic but he is usually not an actor, so I actually took it as confirmation he had trips. However the key factors were (1) the pot was small, so I could afford to be wrong a fair amount of the time and still have the fold be profitable. (2) and this was what made it a fold, his attempt to raise by $1 on third screamed "building a small pot that I'll either stoke if I improve or try to win outright with a big bet on fourth or fifth if I don't". That was what really made me think he very likely had split kings. Anyway, I laid down, although it wasn't easy, and he was kind enough to show me his third cowboy.